Author: AbbotsfordBlogger

I came across the gorgeous blog of Melbournienne Lucy Feagins. She has done a great job blogging Gertrude St. The beautiful photo of Amor y Locura above is hers. I find so few blogs that I really want to read these days, but this is one of them. It’s so what blogs should be like: journalism without the corruption. And with good photos. Good blogs need good photos. Free and ad-free. But hers even boasts hand-drawn maps to die for.

Apart from Gertrude St, it has much of interest to whatever remains of Abbotsford Blog’s readership after its sad neglect by me. For example, her posts on:

Collingwood man Richard John Lovett (more recently of Bundoora) burgled he whom the press are carefully describing as ‘disgraced millionaire businessman’ Steve Vizard’s then Toorak mansion while Steve and the kids were at home slumbering. You may recall that little Stephanie V. woke up to find him rifling through her things, in her bedroom. Security cameras at the disgraced white collar feller’s lair had Lovett and a mate in the mansion for 40 minutes. Remarkably, after the altercation outside with Stephanie’s dad, that same evening Mr Lovett went on to burgle another house nearby. Then, in Collingwood the following day, he stabbed a man in the back, puncturing his lung, in the course of the Harmworth St liberation of a backpack, clothing, and a gold necklace in a street robbery graced by a 20cm long blade. Continue reading “Collingwood blue collar crim burgles disgraced white collar feller, then stabs local in the back”

If so, please return to its owner, or ring 000. It’s 3m long. It’s as thick as an arm. It escaped from a balcony at Tim Marshall’s Noone St, Clifton Hill apartment on the 9th, where it had lived with another carpet python for a decade. They suspect it might be in your roof, or up a tree. The police suggest not leaving little birds outside in little cages, but the opinion on that is divergent. Tim says the snake ate well last week, so not to worry. The Hun reported that the snake is not on any medication. And this, for me, is the fascinating bit of the story. What motivated Patrick Horan to report that bit of non-news?

The marvellous slow food market is on at the Convent today — get a rhubarb tartlett from the rhubarb lady, a strong coffee from Lentil as Anything, a loaf of bread from the bakery, and stock up on unbelievably good home made panforte for Christmas presents. But take your own plastic bags, or baskets. And there’s an open day at the Convent besides, where you can go inside the buildings, check out the artists’ studios, the ‘wellbeing studios’, and probably even the most beautiful ‘cello shop in the world. Market finishes at 1 p.m., open day goes till 4 p.m. 3MBS is running tours.

There are some wonderful homeware places for the well-heeled in Abbotsford proper in addition to all the lifestyle supermarkets in Bridge Road. There’s Orient Express, where you can buy Asian people’s cultural heritage. There’s Mondo Trasho, cool in every way, and then there’s one of my favourite shops, Zelij. It’s a Moroccan importer (alas, Maison de Tunisie, a lovely little place on Smith St towards Victoria St a few years ago is no more). It has beautiful Moroccan lights, bowls, Moorish tiles, tableware and cookware, and some distinctive rugs and armchairs and sofas. Also, lots of Moroccan cookbooks and books with titles like ‘Moorish Style’.

Usually, Zelij’s unbelievably expensive. Today though, is the last day of their warehouse clearance: there are few prices marked on anything, but presumably it’s walking out the door at never to be repeated, crazy, crazy prices. The warehouse is at 25 Russell St, Abbotsford, 3067. The contrast between the wonderfully Moorish interior and the industrial brick warehouse exterior is kind of worth popping your head into, just for a gander. Basically, it’s right at the southern end of Collingwood Station, near the Town Hall and the library. Russell St runs between Gipps St and Langridge St, beside the railway line, one street towards Hoddle St from the street with the Carringbush Hotel on the corner.

Update, 18 November: Here’s an article from The Age which suggests that the Channel Deepening Project may see toxic sludge disturbed by the dredging wash back up the 22 km long tidal estuary of the Yarra all the way up to Dight’s Falls, bringing foul smells with it.

Original article: Well, it’s not the most interesting news in the world, but apparently Dight’s Falls is to be rebuilt so that it looks just the same. Apparently they’re going to have a public consulation. They’re going to make an even better fish ladder to help little fishies, and eels to get over the big bump. Did you know that the eels that live in the Yarra can actually get out, walk around the falls, and get back in? That’s what the web says. What I’d like are some stepping stones across the top so you can walk over it safely. Anyone else?